Liverpool 6 - Derby County 0
The Reds made it 10 home goals in a week to underline the belief at Anfield that they are genuine title contenders.
They followed up the four they put past Toulouse in the Champions League on Tuesday with six unanswered goals to crush Derby. Spaniards Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso grabbed two each, Ryan Babel netted his first for the club and substitute Andriy Voronin also got onto the scoresheet.
It is the first time Liverpool have led the top flight for five years and their best start to a league season since 1998. Derby, fresh up from the Championship, simply could not cope with the variety, pace and skill Liverpool possessed - or indeed the pots of money that has seen manager Rafael Benitez build his squad.
Derby battled hard, trying to restrict the space in front of their defence, but it was becoming increasingly difficult and Mears was warned by referee Alan Wiley for a succession of fouls.
After one on Jermaine Pennant, Alonso took the free-kick 35 yards out on the left. As his low drive swerved into the box Kuyt ran across Bywater's line of vision and the ball nestled in the back of the net.
The second goal came in first-half injury-time when Pennant set up Babel, who side-stepped two diving defenders before belting in his first goal for the club.
The third was not long coming. Mascherano dispossessed a dithering Malcolm 30 yards out and pushed the ball to Torres. The Spaniard then took on a beat three defenders in a run across the box before burying his shot into the bottom corner on 56 minutes.
Liverpool were playing at such a pace and with outstanding control, Derby just could not handle it and continually gave the ball away or made forced errors. The fourth came on 69 minutes when Babel crossed from the right, Benayoun's effort was blocked and Alonso placed an 18-yard shot into the bottom corner.
Next on was Andriy Voronin in place of Babel and virtually his first touch produced the fifth. Kuyt surged into the box on the right and fired in an angled shot that Bywater could only push out for the Ukrainian to force home from a couple of yards.
It got worse for Derby a minute later when a poor back-pass by Andy Todd was snapped up by Torres, who rounded Bywater to run the ball into an empty net.
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